Trend Micro isn't a household name, especially compared with heftier rivals like Symantec. But the Tokyo-based company has a following among security pros looking for a vendor that eats, sleeps and breathes nothing but computer viruses.

Trend Micro isn't a household name, especially compared with heftier rivals like Symantec. But the Tokyo-based company has a following among security pros looking for a vendor that eats, sleeps and breathes nothing but computer viruses.

"We like Trend because that's all they do," says Ken Robertson, director of information systems at Jennie Stuart Medical Center. "They live and die by how well they do virus protection." The Hopkinsville, Ky., hospital began using Trend Micro's products about six years ago because at the time it was the only player in the field providing centralized management capabilities, Robertson says.

Cabot, a chemical manufacturer based in Boston, was one of Trend Micro's earliest corporate customers, having adopted its antivirus software in 1996. Marian Cole, director of global information-technology infrastructure, says as Trend Micro has grown it has rounded out the product offerings nicely. "When they started, they were fragmented," she says. "We've seen their ability to deliver new products and product fixes come together quickly."

Another plus, say Trend Micro fans: Its software is often priced less than competitors'. CH2M Hill, a Colorado engineering-consulting company, pays Trend Micro $64,000 per year for an annual maintenance contract that includes licenses for 10,000 desktop and server machines. "Every time we've done a review, Trend has come in less expensive," says Chris Johnson, an enterprise- systems specialist with CH2M Hill. He says other vendors are at least 25% more expensive.

Sometimes, though, Trend Micro's smaller stature has given prospective customers pause. "One of the biggest concerns we had initially was that they weren't Symantec," says Jamey Anderson, a network administrator at ADC Telecommunications, a network-equipment manufacturer that moved to Trend Micro about four years ago. Since then, Anderson says, Trend has been very quick to respond to threats and proactively notifies him when a major virus hits.

And the company has addressed Anderson's biggest gripe: that it wasn't providing a good way for remote users to update virus definitions over slow links. OfficeScan version 5.5, released in February 2003, includes a Remote Agent feature designed for low-bandwidth connections that downloads virus updates directly from Trend Micro's Web site.

Jennie Stuart Medical Center Ken Robertson Director, I.S. (270) 887-0528Project: Hospital uses OfficeScan for 350 desktops and ScanMail for Lotus Notes. Upgraded the client software last year after 10% of its PCs—which had been running older versions of OfficeScan—were infected with the Nachi worm.

Tufts University James Crouch Senior Systems Administrator james.crouch@tufts.eduProject: Uses OfficeScan for the university's 3,500 faculty and staff, as well as ScanMail for Exchange and ServerProtect for 35 Windows servers.